The last couple of years, my New Year’s resolution posts have been a bit different.
In 2018, I didn’t set any goals for the year, as I simply wanted to focus on getting my book published. By the end of the year, my crowdfunding campaign was finished and I was deep in the editorial phase, with a publication date in May 2019.
And so last year, my goals were all focused on being a debut novelist, managing my expectations and deciding what success looked like. I’m pleased that I managed to keep to my list and ended the year happy that my book had found its own life and sold a respectable number of copies.
But what about this year?
If you read my review of the year post earlier in the week, you’ll know that the last two years have very much been about work for me. And while I anticipate the same this year, I want to work in a very different way.
The biggest change will be that I’ve made the decision to make more space in my life for writing and I’ll be going part-time at my day job. I hope to secure writing residencies and teach workshops and do some freelance jobs to mitigate the drop in income, while also working on my second novel. It’s a risk, but it’s one I’ve been building up to for a while.
I’ve worked in marketing for almost 12 years and if I’m honest, I’ve never felt I was being true to myself. The writing side of my life always had to be repressed to some extent, to enable the focus to stay on work. But this year I’m giving myself permission to be a writer, whatever that means.
So for me 2020 will hopefully be about one thing: transition.
I want to transition away from a traditional marketing job into something a bit more creative and independent, at least part-time. I want to build my own writing practice and feel that I’m moving in the right direction for me. I want to make time to enjoy life a bit more and not feel I have to spend 60 plus hours a week chained to the computer. I want to be happy with the life I have.
To make that happen, there are a few resolutions to help me on my way.
- 100 submissions: to progress my writing career, I hope to stare rejection in the face and make 100 writing related submissions, applications or competition entries of some kind. If I can do that many, hopefully there might be a handful of acceptances in there too!
- Read more adventurously: I might have to accept that working my day job and writing don’t leave the mental space I need to read a high volume of books. So instead of aiming for a particular number, I want to read different books, diverse books, independent books from small publishers, not only the books that everyone is talking about.
- Spend more time with my husband (and dog): to make time for writing, I’m often guilty of neglecting my other half. So this year I will make more time for us to do things together, even just watching television and chatting. It does make life feel so much better.
- Feel grateful: transitioning to part-time work is terrifying. I’m taking a risk with my finances and I don’t really know what I’m doing, or whether it’s a good idea. But I’m going to do it anyway. Maybe in a year I’ll need to go back to working full-time, but at least I’ll have tried. So over the next year, I want to focus on enjoying the extra time away from the office, which I can instead spend writing, rather than worrying about money. Obviously I need to be practical too, but letting my anxiety take over won’t get me anywhere.
- Get an office set up: I’ve been meaning to create a proper office space for myself since we bought our house in 2014, but I still do most of my work on the sofa with my laptop. This is the year that will finally change!
So there it is: a new year and a new decade, and, hopefully, a new chapter of my life. Who knows what might happen over the next 12 months!
Have you made any resolutions this year?